I am looking at “A Curse for a Nation” as a Postcolonial Work.
More specifically, I am looking at the second half of the poem, “The Curse”. We see in “The Curse”, thematically speaking, all the contextual signs of a Postcolonial work.
Stanza 1 speaks to oppression. This can this in the inter-play of the word -“chain”. Stanza 2 speaks to the crimes that are committed against slaves. Stanza 3 speaks to the hypocrisy inherent in slavery - from God loving people. Stanza 4, speaks to imperialism. Stanza 5, speaks of bloodhounds. Stanza 6, to the strangling of the weak. Stanza 7, about retribution from God to slave holders. Stanza 8, to the blush these slave holders will have in front of God. Stanza 9, to the slave holders conscience, tradition and name - that will eventually explode “with a deadlier blame”.
Then we have the last stanza;
Go, whatever ill deeds shall be done,
Go, plant your flag in the sun
Beside the ill-doers!
And recoil from clenching the curse
Of God’s witnessing Universe
With a curse of yours.
THIS is the curse. Write.
While the others stanzas have themes that are common in Postcolonial literature, this last stanza actually has the phrase, “Go, plant your flag in the sun”. The image is both visually striking and is at the heart of Postcolonial literature. By planting a flag, the slave -holder becomes a true colonizer as well. And to be a colonizer or at least in my perspective, is to claim something that is not yours.
I think the question here is of “authority” and “authenticity”. Does EBB have the authority to write poetry as white woman whose parents were slave holders? To answer this question, I would turn to the role of the journalist today. Do journalists have the write to go to war torn countries and write about what is going on? Do they have the right to document crimes that may be due to a heritage that they come from. Can a American journalist document what is happening in Iraq or Afghanistan? Can a journalist from a Western world cover a story that is happening in a country where, most likely, the arms or weapons being used to wreak havoc on the very people he or she is covering, was made from his or her group of people, economic system or ethnicity. Secondly, can someone document any atrocity when the people themselves are to taken back, by that very atrocity, to write anything. If an oppressed people cannot speak out publically, (say the citizens of North Korea) then can someone else write for them – can someone else express their atrocities for them in poetry, in story or in fact. The answer to question of authority – can someone else have the authority - is obviously yes.
The second question is “authenticity”. I believe authenticity, can be redefined here as “one who feels authentically for a cause”. I believe if one has an authentic voice, one can speak authentically for someone else. Can a journalist speak authentically to an experience if they witness it? Yes, and in that same manner, EBB can speak authentically to the subject at hand.
Just as the colonizer sticks his flag in the ground – EBB sticks her flag, authoratively and authentically – to “write” – into the anti-slave movement and in doing so, into the Postcolonial movement.
More specifically, I am looking at the second half of the poem, “The Curse”. We see in “The Curse”, thematically speaking, all the contextual signs of a Postcolonial work.
Stanza 1 speaks to oppression. This can this in the inter-play of the word -“chain”. Stanza 2 speaks to the crimes that are committed against slaves. Stanza 3 speaks to the hypocrisy inherent in slavery - from God loving people. Stanza 4, speaks to imperialism. Stanza 5, speaks of bloodhounds. Stanza 6, to the strangling of the weak. Stanza 7, about retribution from God to slave holders. Stanza 8, to the blush these slave holders will have in front of God. Stanza 9, to the slave holders conscience, tradition and name - that will eventually explode “with a deadlier blame”.
Then we have the last stanza;
Go, whatever ill deeds shall be done,
Go, plant your flag in the sun
Beside the ill-doers!
And recoil from clenching the curse
Of God’s witnessing Universe
With a curse of yours.
THIS is the curse. Write.
While the others stanzas have themes that are common in Postcolonial literature, this last stanza actually has the phrase, “Go, plant your flag in the sun”. The image is both visually striking and is at the heart of Postcolonial literature. By planting a flag, the slave -holder becomes a true colonizer as well. And to be a colonizer or at least in my perspective, is to claim something that is not yours.
I think the question here is of “authority” and “authenticity”. Does EBB have the authority to write poetry as white woman whose parents were slave holders? To answer this question, I would turn to the role of the journalist today. Do journalists have the write to go to war torn countries and write about what is going on? Do they have the right to document crimes that may be due to a heritage that they come from. Can a American journalist document what is happening in Iraq or Afghanistan? Can a journalist from a Western world cover a story that is happening in a country where, most likely, the arms or weapons being used to wreak havoc on the very people he or she is covering, was made from his or her group of people, economic system or ethnicity. Secondly, can someone document any atrocity when the people themselves are to taken back, by that very atrocity, to write anything. If an oppressed people cannot speak out publically, (say the citizens of North Korea) then can someone else write for them – can someone else express their atrocities for them in poetry, in story or in fact. The answer to question of authority – can someone else have the authority - is obviously yes.
The second question is “authenticity”. I believe authenticity, can be redefined here as “one who feels authentically for a cause”. I believe if one has an authentic voice, one can speak authentically for someone else. Can a journalist speak authentically to an experience if they witness it? Yes, and in that same manner, EBB can speak authentically to the subject at hand.
Just as the colonizer sticks his flag in the ground – EBB sticks her flag, authoratively and authentically – to “write” – into the anti-slave movement and in doing so, into the Postcolonial movement.